Three things we learned about the Charlotte Hornets in their win against Golden State
LaMelo Ball had an inkling.
Tipoff against the Golden State Warriors was still hours away, yet the Charlotte Hornets’ star point guard already knew how things would be going down.
“Coming in today I felt like we were going to win,” Ball said. “I seen the Panthers, they were playing the Cardinals. And I seen they were like 8-1 or something. I’m like, ‘Dang this kind of lines up. I feel like we might win, too.’ And we won.”
Call him Nostradamus.
On the strength of Terry Rozier’s clutch plays in the waning minutes -- including winning a jump ball over Draymond Green -- and some notable fourth-quarter defense, the Hornets outlasted Golden State 106-102 at Spectrum Center on Sunday night.
In earning their best victory of the season and taking down the team with the league’s best record, the Hornets (8-7) held the Warriors to 14 points in the final quarter. Executing more often than not during those last 12 minutes, they closed out Golden State (11-2) and avoided the crunch time issues that plagued them during their five-game losing streak preceding this stretch of three straight victories.
“That speaks for itself,” said Rozier, who scored all 20 of his points in the second half. “We’re playing the No. 1 team in the league and come out to get the win. But that says a lot for our team and where we’re headed. We’re trying to go places. We are trying to get our organization like theirs and this is a great step to what we want to do.”
Here are three things we learned in the Hornets’ impressive win over Golden State:
ANOTHER SOLID GAME FOR LAMELO BALL
Following up on Friday’s performance in which he became the first guard in franchise history to record multiple 15-rebound games, Ball was a catalyst in the first half for the Hornets.
He pumped in 15 points in the opening quarter alone and made sure they matched the Warriors’ intensity from the outset. Ball finished with 21 points, seven rebounds and five assists, and made good decisions in the final seconds to ensure the Hornets had an opportunity to squeeze it out late.
“Yeah, I just let the game come to me,” Ball said. “I feel like those shots starting off, they were right there. So I was just shooting them and then they were going in. So the points came quick. And then after that I got back in and it really wasn’t the scoring (that) we needed. We needed ball movement, assists, rebounds and stuff. So I was trying to do anything to help the team win.”
Ball drew some pretty good praise from Golden State’s Draymond Green.
“Extremely gifted,” Green said. “He is a gifted floor general and he shot the ball extremely well in the first half, and he gives these guys confidence. It is good to see from a young guy and how he commands the respect from his teammates the way that he does. And you can see the way they respond to him and how they react to him. And it takes a special person and player to be in his second year and getting the respect that he does from those guys, so it is good to see.”
OUBRE EJECTION IFFY
When these teams met in San Francisco on Nov. 3, Kelly Oubre was looking forward to his outing against his former team, but it didn’t go so well. He didn’t score and had just one rebound and an assist in the Hornets’ 114-92 defeat.
Oubre posted 10 points and four rebounds, and was having a much better game this time around — until early in the fourth quarter. After a swooping fastbreak layup, he said something to referee David Guthrie as he turned along the baseline and began heading back on defense when got whistled for a technical foul. In the blink of an eye, Oubre was slapped with a second technical foul, resulting in an ejection.
“It was two separate unsportsmanlike acts,” Guthrie said in a pool report. “The first technical foul was for an overt unsportsmanlike action indicating resentment to a no call. The second technical was for an unsportsmanlike wave off directed towards the official.”
Upset and confused by getting tossed, Oubre motioned with both arms as he exited the court through the tunnel to encourage the crowd to become even more boisterous and voice its displeasure at the call. Coach James Borrego was equally befuddled about the ejection.
“That’s a good question,” he said. “I’ll let you ask that question. I don’t have that answer.”
NO SLOW START
At least the Hornets didn’t have to worry about one of the problems that’s plagued them for the better part of their first 14 games. They’ve typically fallen behind in the early going and are forced to play catch up, needing a furious run or two in order to climb back in it.
But they remained within arm’s length of the Warriors for both quarters. The largest deficit the Hornets found themselves in was five points, which definitely hasn’t been the norm. It was quite the opposite in fact, particularly in their past two games when Memphis’ Ja Morant and New York’s Kemba Walker had huge opening quarters.
“We don’t want to be in those holes,” Borrego said. “I don’t think our guys are coming out lackadaisical. I think we’ve just got to come out with a more aggressive mentality and sometimes that’s just making shots. And Morant got off to a hot start and Kemba got off to a hot start, and that ignited their group.
“So for us we’ve got to set the tone early. I think when we do that and start games we are much better off. But I don’t think there is a lot of complacency here like, ‘Let’s get down and we can always come back.’ I don’t feel that mentality at all. But we don’t want to build those habits. We’ve got to get off to better starts for sure.”
This story was originally published November 14, 2021 at 9:33 PM.
